Through the Eyes of Age

Title

Through the Eyes of Age

Problem Scenario

The affect of age on perspective.

Broad Question

Does the age of a person affect their visual perspective?

Specific Question

Does the age of a person affect who they see in the Young Woman/Old Woman illusion?

Hypothesis

It is hypothesized that who a person sees in the Young Woman/Old Woman illusion will be affected by their own age.

Graph of Hypothesis




Variables

Independent Variable:

The age of the person.

Dependent Variable:

Who is seen in the illusion?

Variables That Need To Be Controlled:

Gender
Number of people asked in each age category
How the question is presented

Vocabulary List That Needs Explanation

Illusion: something that deceives by producing a false or misleading impression of reality.
The state or condition of being deceived misapprehension.
An instance of being deceived.
A perception as of visual stimuli (optical illusion) that represents what is perceived in a way different from the way it is in reality.
Visual Perspective: the way in which objects appear to the eye.

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General Plan

For this experiment, I will show 24 people the Young Woman/Old Woman illusion separately, and ask them what they see. Of the 24 people, 8 of them will be between 10-20 years old, 8 of them will be between 40-50 years old, and the remaining 8 will be between 60-70 years old.

Potential Problems And Solutions

Difficulty in finding enough test subjects
Test subjects seeing both or neither women in the illusion

Safety Or Environmental Concerns

There are no safety or environmental concerns.

Experimental Design

Controlled, manipulated experiment

What is your experimental unit?

One person.

Number of Trials:

There will be 3 trials completed for this experiment.

Number of Subjects In Each Trial:

There will be 8 subjects in each trial for this experiment.

Number of Observations:

There will be 24 observations made during these trials.

When data will be collected:

The data will be collected from February 1st to March 1st.

Where will data be collected?

The data will be collected where ever is appropriate for the situation.

Resources and Budget Table

Item	Number needed	Where I will get this	Cost
Print out of the Illusion	one	create at home	$0.00

Detailed Procedure

Step 1: Print out the Young Woman/Old Woman illusion on a large sheet of white paper. Step 2: Arrange to meet with each of the 24 people individually. Step 3: Sit down with each person; ask their name and age. Write this down in a notebook for recording observations. Step 3: Show them the picture, explain to them that the picture is an illusion, and that different people may see different things in it. Step 4: Ask them what they see in the picture. Step 5: If they are unsure, prompt them by asking them who they see, what kind of person. Step 6: Record their answer next to their name and age category. Step 7: Repeat for all 24 subjects.

Diagram

Photo List

Time Line

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Data Table

Subject	Who Is Seen
10-20 Subject 1	Old Woman
10-20 Subject 2	Young Woman
10-20 Subject 3	Old Woman
10-20 Subject 4	Young Woman
10-20 Subject 5	Young Woman
10-20 Subject 6	Young Woman
10-20 Subject 7	Young Woman
10-20 Subject 8	Old Woman
40-50 Subject 1	Old Woman
40-50 Subject 2	Old Woman
40-50 Subject 3	Young Woman
40-50 Subject 4	Old Woman
40-50 Subject 5	Old Woman
40-50 Subject 6	Young Woman
40-50 Subject 7	Young Woman
40-50 Subject 8	Young Woman
60-70 Subject 1	Old Woman
60-70 Subject 2	Old Woman
60-70 Subject 3	Old Woman
60-70 Subject 4	Old Woman
60-70 Subject 5	Young Woman
60-70 Subject 6	Old Woman
60-70 Subject 7	Young Woman
60-70 Subject 8	Old Woman

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Data Analysis

All Raw Data
See data table.

Graphs

Photos

Results

Looking at the graphs of my data, you can see that 62.5% of 10-20 year-olds saw the Young Woman, and 37.5% of 10-20 years-old's saw the Old Woman in the illusion. 50% percent of 40-50 year-old's saw the Young Woman, and the other 50% saw the Old Woman. For people 60-70 years old in age, 25% of them saw the Young Woman, and 75% percent of them saw the Old Woman.

Conclusion

Does the age of a person affect who they see in the Young Woman/Old Woman illusion? Based on the data collected during this experiment, the answer to that question would be yes. My original hypothesis was correct; most young people saw the young woman, about an even number of middle aged people saw the young woman and old woman, and most of the elderly people saw the old woman. Overall, I found that the age of a person does indeed affect their visual perspective.

Discussion

For my science fair project, I conducted an experiment to answer the question, "Does the age of a person affect who they see in the Young Woman/Old Woman illusion?" After I conducted the experiment and gathered the data, I analyzed it to answer some questions. The data that I collected showed certain trends and patterns that were consistent with my original hypothesis. I found that 62.5% of young people saw the young woman in the illusion, 75% of elderly people saw the old woman in the illusion, and 50% of middle aged people saw the young woman and the old woman in the illusion.
There was a fairly strong relationship between the independent and dependent variable (the age of the test subject and who they saw in the illusion). When the age of the test subject changed, for the most part, what they saw in the illusion changed as well. All in all, I was able to answer my experiment question using the data I collected from my experiment. With my data, I was able to come to the conclusion that the age of a person does indeed affect who they see in the Young Woman/Old Woman illusion.
Throughout the course of my experiment, there were some problems that arose that had to be dealt with. For example, It was particularly difficult for me to find enough people in the three different age categories to test for my experiment. My experiment could have been improved or advanced even if I could have had the resources to be able to test more people for my experiment. If I had done more trials, the data and overall quality of my experiment would have been greatly improved upon and far more accurate.

Benefit to Community and/or Science

My science project and its results could potentially benefit the community and/or science. It could possibly help people in further studies about how age affects perspective. It could also help in marketing for products to help people see what kind of things different aged people can relate to or want to buy.

Background Research

Optical Illusions are images or objects that represent what is perceived in a way that is different from the way it is in reality. They confuse your mind by defying its hard wired logic. There are many different types of optical illusions all meant to confuse your mind and make you think.

The Young Woman/Old Woman illusion depicts a woman with dark hair wearing a bonnet. Whether she is old or young is up to you. What looks like an eye on the old woman is an ear on the young woman; what looks like a necklace on the young woman is a smiling mouth on the old maid. Different people see different things when looking at this illusion, but whether it says something about you or your perspective is up for debate.

Many things change about our brains and vision as we age. As people get older, it becomes harder to concentrate on one thing while ignoring everything else. It takes more effort to tune out distractions. As a result, an older person may see one side of the illusion fairly naturally, but have a hard time seeing the other even after it is pointed out to them. Young people have an easier time picking out an object in the midst of clutter, but seem to have a harder time tuning into the clutter itself.

The age of a person may have an affect on their perspective. In other words, how old they are may affect how they see things. If an older person looks at the Young Woman/Old Woman illusion, will they see the Old woman because they relate to it? Will a young person see the young woman for the same reason?

References

"How Optical Illusions Work." How Optical Illusions Work. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2013.
"Age Affects Perspective." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2013.

Abstract

My science fair project was based on the question, "Does the age of a person affect who they see in the Young Woman/Old Woman illusion" I hypothesized that age would affect a person's visual perspective. To test my theory, I showed the illusion to 3 different age groups of 8 people each (a total of 24 people), and asked them what they saw. From there, I looked at the results and formed my conclusion. After conducting the experiment and analyzing the data, I can confidently say that my hypothesis was correct. Based on my findings, age does have an affect on who a person sees in the Young Woman/Old Woman illusion.